


Longing

by lenfaz



Category: Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Genre: F/M, can't help it, ships that no one wants but me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 17:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20450831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lenfaz/pseuds/lenfaz
Summary: Catalina x Augustine





	Longing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sambethe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sambethe/gifts), [Kliomuse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kliomuse/gifts).

“I’ve only loved two people in my life, Catalina…. The first wasn’t meant to be. He went on with his life and married your sister.”

“And the second one?” She was almost afraid to ask, as the air thickened between them and his eyes met hers. The façade was gone and there laid Augustine in all his humanity. The sheer agony she saw there took her breath away.

“It’s ironic, isn’t it? There’s only one way to be immune to your magic and it seems I have been able to acquire that particular skillset in the past few years.”

She tried to reach for him, but he pulled back.

“No, darling, don’t. I know my place. I know that this is preposterous. I’m all kinds of wrong for you. Connor would beat me to a pulp, and with all reason. Your mother would shoot me. Your cousin would dispose of me in the most efficient way.” He quirked an eyebrow at her. “I know my boundaries and I know this is not meant to be. That’d never meant to be.”

“Augustine.”

“I beg you do not pity me. I’m the Head of a very powerful house and I will get over this feeling. I will. You, in the meantime, will go live your life. Marry your count, Catalina, and do not give this another thought. I’m too old, scarred and jaded for you.”

/-/

_ 10 years later _

She looked like a vision. The years have been good to her. She looked poised, intelligent, strong. She looked - was - like everything a Prime should be and still maintained that bright eyed kindness that had driven him to her more than a decade ago.

Sagredo was an idiot to let her go. 

“What brings you to my office, Miss Baylor?” he asked

“Why the formalities… we’re practically family, aren’t we?” she adjusted a crease on her black pencil skirt, and his eyes couldn’t help but roam over her figure. Gods have mercy on him. Connor was going to dump a building on his head. And with reason.

“They haven’t made it official yet and until he puts a ring on her finger and the contracts are signed, we are not family.” 

_ Besides, I’ll never be able to look at you as a sister.  _

“A Montgomery marrying the Beast of Cologne… I hope your brother is ready for temper tantrums.”

“You’re being awfully harsh on your sister. She’s grown up to be a lovely young woman. She’ll bring nothing but joy and dignity to House Montgomery.” He leaned in, because he couldn’t help himself now that he had her so close after all these years. “Although I do fear the day they take over MII and House Montgomery.”

“If you’re so worried, Augustine, you can easily fix that by taking a wife and producing offspring, like a good Head of House.”

He closed his eyes, sighing.  _ Not a chance of that happening _ .

He could hear the clicking sounds of her heels as she came closer, her scent enveloping him. It was torture, and yet he didn’t want it to end.

“Open your eyes, Augustine.”

He drank her features, allowing himself this one moment of weakness after all these years. “Why are you here, Catalina?” He let threads of his illusion go, letting her see parts of the real him, hoping that his vulnerability will push her away.

She gave him a lopsided smile. “Ten years ago, you had a proposal to make to House Baylor.”

He chuckled. “You mean when I tried to arm twist you into becoming my vassal?”

She bit her lip and he almost groaned. She was too close. “That is one way to look at it…. You remember what I said to you?”

As if he could ever forget….

“You told me that you - that House Baylor - needed to stand on its own. That our relationship would be unbalanced and that I would crush you under me. That you’d lose yourself.” Her words had been clear and concise. They were not equals. There was an unbalance. And she didn’t want it. It was a statement on the impossibility of an agreement as much as it was on the everlasting impossibility of them. Of why they would never be.

She shifted and for a moment he thought she was going to sit on his lap. But she wouldn’t, would she? That’d be preposterous. 

“That was the reality then, Augustine. But it’s been ten years.” She leaned over him, her fingers tracing a pattern on the sleeve of his suit. “Things have changed. I - our house- it’s more mature. We stood on our own. We survived. We succeeded. We thrived.”

She’d done all those things and more. He knew it as he hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of keeping tabs with her. Silently, in the shadows, he rejoiced in every one of her triumphs over the last decade.

“You’re a success, Catalina. House Baylor is a success. You’ve done it. But that still doesn’t answer my question.” He needed her out of his office before he made the biggest mistake of his life. “Why are you here?”

“Because I have a proposal for you.”

“For me? Or for House Montgomery?”

“Aren’t they one and the same?”

_ No, they aren’t.  _

She stroked his hand and he lost what was left of his sanity. He almost growled at how great her fingers felt on his skin.

“I think we’re ready to enter that agreement in equal footing now and considering the ties that will bind our families, it wouldn’t be far fetched for us to enter such agreement. The Montgomery-Baylor International Investigations. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

If she leaned any closer she was going to collapse into him. He should stand up, put distance between them and yet all he could do was intertwined his fingers with hers and pulled her until her legs touched his.

“Why?”

She shrugged… “If you’re worried about them taking over, let’s build something so strong that even they cannot ruin. Think about it, we could even be bigger than House Rogan if we set up to it.”

Considering House Rogan was busy raising several offspring that have burst with the most unexpected magic combinations and enjoying every minute of it, he didn’t have any doubts that he could one-up his best friend business wise. But not all in life was house business. 

“Your proposal does bring a lot appeal. As Head of House, I’d be an idiot not to consider it.”

“And as Augustine?”

“Why would I feel any different?”

“Because you love me.” 

Sharp and to the point. Like the daggers he knew she carried around and were her favourite weapon.

He averted his eyes. “That’s ancient history, darling. I got over it a decade ago.”

“Look at me,” she commanded. And the final pieces of his facade dropped and he looked into her eyes as anything but Augustine Montgomery. 

Her hand reached for his face and he wanted to recoil, but he was weak to her touch. He leaned into her palm, savoring the moment. “Catalina… don’t do this. I’m trying to do the honorable thing here. Not to mention, preserve my physical integrity. You can’t illusion a corpse.”

She chuckled and the sound was like music to his ears. He was in his forties and he felt as giddy as a teenager whenever she was near. “You foolish idiot… you really don’t have feelings for me?”

“I don’t.” He was going down a rabbit hole with his last piece of sanity. 

“Take a closer look, Augustine.” She closed her eyes and hummed briefly. The air around her started to shine as if tiny twinkle-twinkle little stars surrounded her. And suddenly he could see it all: her wings spread wide around her, bent and cocooning the both of them, threads of her magic weaving through him. It was mesmerizing.

“Catalina,” he rasped.

She opened her eyes, her smile wide and almost childish. “I picked up a few tricks here and there in the past few years. And I’ve been hitting you with all my magic since I walked into your office, Augustine, so don’t you dare tell me you don’t love me.”

_ As if I could have ever stopped. _

The words were out of his mouth before he could catch them. And finally - finally - she did what he’d been hoping she’d do since she leaned into him. She lowered herself down and sat on his lap, her arms circling his neck.”You once told me you knew your place. That you were too old, too scarred, too jaded for me. And you were. Perhaps you still are. But the reality is… I would have never wanted you any other way, Augustine.” Her lips brushed his. He didn’t stand a chance. He crushed his mouth into hers, giving into a decade of wanting, of longing, of loving. 

“Your family is going to kill me.”

“Ffft, I’d like to see them try. My sister married the Scourge of Mexico, for crying out loud.” 


End file.
